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Endangered Livestock

In what will truly sound the death-knell for any political ambitions I may have ever had, Amy Miller (h/t) got me thinking about something in a Twitter conversation.

First, let’s face it, almost everybody hates the idea of whale hunting. These are “beautiful” and “majestic” creatures. God’s creatures. Hunting them on the high seas brings horrific images to the minds of so many people, promulgated by liberal media and education groups. That is why Discovery Networks is now airing is “Whale Wars” program.

I hate this program. I don’t like the idea of hunting endangered species. I’d prefer if Japan, Iceland and Norway would just knock it off until whale populations increase to a more sustainable level. These Whale Wars guys, though, are just pirates. They block the path of registered vessels and board them with the intent of disrupting legal commerce or scientific research. That’s piracy, pure and simple, and these idiots should be dealt with just like the pirates in Somalia, not lionized with their own television show.

Which is, in part, why I’ve thought about this so much. Most conservatives probably won’t like it, but it just makes sense. Still, it wasn’t until last night that I thought seriously about Whale Farming.

Think about it: Under the auspices of protecting various whale species, a few are captured in the wild or bred from existing aquarium stocks and brought to a deep Norwegian fjord or Japanese inlet with its entrance blocked in order to breed more in captivity. They are fed plankton (or fish, depending on the species) that is farmed in deep saltwater ponds nearby.

Now, this conservation effort must be paid-for. After all, blocking off a fjord and dredging those ponds is going to be expensive. Private charity just isn’t going to cover it. So, while much of the pod is released into the wild, several are culled for the purpose of selling to those who want them.

This is the market incentive that liberals (and even a lot of conservatives) can’t stand: Taking an endangered species and saving it by farming it. It’s a free-market solution to an international problem, it creates jobs, and were there not so many laws and regulations to prevent it, our modern society could reproduce it. We already do it on an extremely limited basis at aquariums. Ted Turner is doing something similar with his Montana Grill bison herd.

That some people find the idea distasteful is their problem. We’re saving the whales here! Get those guys at PETA and Greenpeace out of the way! We’ve got to save these beautiful, majestic and apparently tasty animals!